Samsung Electronics Chairman Lee Kun-hee, who had a heart attack earlier this month, was transferred to a general ward as his health condition improved, the hospital where he is being treated said Monday. Read More »

Samsung Electronics retained its top ranking in smartphone sales in the first quarter, but lost global market share for the first time in four years, highlighting the difficulties the company faces in the competitive mobile market.

Data from research firm Strategy Analytics Tuesday showed the South Korean company’s first-quarter smartphone market share in terms of units sold slipped to 31.2% from 32.4% a year earlier. Its closest rival, Apple, also saw its market share slip to 15.3% from 17.5% a year earlier in the same period.

Strategy Analytics said Samsung shipped 89 million units in the first quarter, compared to Apple’s 43.7 million units. Samsung doesn’t disclose its smartphone shipments . On Tuesday, as it reported quarterly earnings, Samsung said its profit margin on smartphones was unchanged from a year earlier at 19.8%. But analysts say that margin could face pressure in future quarters as competition intensifies. Read More »

Samsung Electronics’s first-quarter results on Tuesday will show a second consecutive annual decline in operating profit as price competition among smartphone makers intensifies, eroding profits.

The company said earlier this month that its operating profit will likely come within a range of 8.2 trillion won to 8.6 trillion won ($7.9 billion to $8.3 billion), representing a decline of 2.1% to 6.6% from a year earlier. The results follow a 6% decline in operating profit in the fourth quarter, which was the company’s first year-over-year drop in two years.

As the search for a new growth engine continues without much fruition, the company’s near-term performance will rely heavily on how the new Samsung Galaxy S5 phone is taken up by customers. Read More »

Battery-life panic disorder. You won’t find it in any medical textbook, but I assure you, when a smartphone’s battery indicator turns red, the corresponding feeling of complete powerlessness is real.

I used to suffer quite badly from it, sitting on dirty floors as my phone charged at whatever power plug that happened to be available. But I’ve since found relief: iPhone and Android phone cases that can double your battery life.

These external battery cases may bring relief, but it’s a brutish and insufficient kind, like curing a headache with an electric drill or repairing a broken window with planks of scavenged wood.

THE DISH ON THE HOPPER: Ever since Dish Network Corp introduced its “Auto Hop” technology a few years ago, the broadcast networks have been steamed—leading to multiple lawsuits. Now, the satellite TV service is make a major concession, reports WSJ. As part of a new carriage deal with Walt Disney Co, Dish will disable its “auto hop” feature, which lets viewers automatically skip ads, for shows on Disney’s ABC until three days after they air (not coincidentally the same number of days Nielsen counts as viewership in its ratings). Back in 2012, Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen surely irritated networks and advertisers when he urged them to make “more meaningful” ads. But Ergen acknowledged last month he hadn’t made much traction with broadcasters on that idea. And it will be interesting to see how many other broadcast networks have called Ergen over the last 24 hours looking for a similar ad hop-killing deal with Dish. In return, Disney granted Dish online video rights that would help Dish launch an Internet-based TV service, something Dish has been talking about doing.

ABC OSCAR STREAM STRUGGLES: In an otherwise great night for ABC (the Oscars attracted the largest entertainment audience on TV since the Friends finale in 2004, according to EW.com) an unnamed broadband vendor dropped the ball, as the streaming broadcast of the Academy Awards failed for some viewers on Sunday night, WSJ reports. Given that the event was only available to paid cable subscribers in certain markets, it’s possible that ABC underestimated the digital viewership for the Oscars, said Ed O’Brien, a New York-based digital media consultant. But given that NBC was able to stream thousands of hours of Winter Olympics just a few weeks ago on top of dozens of Premier League soccer matches, ABC’s Web hiccup feels like something out of 2005. Read More »

Microsoft Changes Top Ad Executive: Microsoft’s marketing strategy looks to be in for a shift. The software giant’s executive vice president for advertising and strategy, Mark Penn, is taking a new role as chief strategy officer, the NYT reports, while Tami Reller, the evp for marketing will leave the company. Overseeing the company’s big ad budget, the NYT says, will be Chris Capossela, who has been overseeing its relations with retailers and distributors, the paper said. The executive shuffle comes in the wake of Satya Nadella’s ascension to the CEO slot.

Samsung announced today that its new Galaxy S5 smartphone is waterproof. In honor of that announcement, it’s time for smartphone users to be honest about something: we’re going to start taking our phones into the shower, once technology allows it.

Spare us your claims that the shower is your last fortress of solitude, free of screens and flashing notification lights. Don’t try to deny that you sleep with your phone and reach out for it within seconds of waking, like a lover who fears their partner may have left in the night. Abandon all hope, ye who claim in-flight cellphone service is an abomination, whilst barely containing your secret glee at being able to check your phone in the air. It’s time to be straight and admit that you want your phone everywhere, always. In the shower.

After all, what if something amazing happens on Facebook during that 15-minute morning routine? Can you really risk missing an entire micro news cycle in the time it takes to wash, dry off and go back to wherever your phone is? How will you justify missing the boat on a whole new genre of shower selfies? The average Twitter user refreshes their timeline more than 600 times per month – or 20 times a day — so is there really a good reason why not a single one of those refreshes happens during the 15 minutes of morning primetime you spend showering?

If it’s something along the lines of “wow, that thing is huge,” then you’re not alone; The Galaxy Gear can look downright hulking. But how much of that is down to its unusual appearance, rather than absolute size?

As the spec sheet shows, the screen is 1.63 inches – 41.4 millimeters — diagonally. And that’s comparable with plenty of old-fashioned watches on the market, none of which will show you your email (none of them will run out of battery as fast either).

So at 41.4 millimeters, is the Galaxy Gear really that big? After the jump, we’ll take you through a few watches from mainstream makers that are even bigger. Read More »